# The Englund Gambit for beginners > Englund Gambit for beginners: take the pawn, meet the Qb4+ check with Bd2 and avoid the Bc3 trap. Three positions checked with Stockfish from 56 rapid games. - URL: https://thechesscoach.netlify.app/openings/englund-gambit/ - Updated: 2026-11-05 - Author: Ignacio Soler The **Englund Gambit** is 1.d4 e5: Black gives up a pawn on move one and hopes for a trap. For beginners with White, the answer is simple: take the pawn, develop, and know one check. When Black's queen jumps to b4 with check, block it with the bishop to d2. I faced the Englund 56 times in rapid with White and scored only 43%, mostly because I didn't follow that advice. Those games are mine (nacsol3 on Chess.com), played between February 2024 and June 2026, with my rapid rating between 859 and 1351 in them. One club player's results are not general statistics, but they show exactly where a 1.d4 beginner goes wrong against this gambit. ## What the Englund Gambit is Chess.com's [Englund Gambit page](https://www.chess.com/openings/Englund-Gambit) (checked as of November 2026) says it "starts after the moves 1.d4 e5", with the main line 2.dxe5 Nc6 3.Nf3 Qe7. The page is blunt: the Englund "is not a sound opening", it was never popular at elite level, but it has "recently had a surge in popularity among club players". Wikipedia's [Englund Gambit article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Englund_Gambit) (as of November 2026) says it is named after the Swedish player Fritz Englund (1871–1933), and calls one White move in the main line, 6.Bc3, a "notorious trap". Both sources agree on the same point: White should get a good position by avoiding a couple of tricks. That is also what my games show, from the other direction. **A gambit** is an opening where one side gives up material, usually a pawn, for time or attacking chances. In the Englund, Black's time goes into one idea: a queen check on b4 that also attacks something. ## My results against the Englund Gambit I had White in all 56 games: 23 wins, 31 losses and 2 draws, a 43% score. My score with White across all my rapid games is 52%, and my average accuracy here was 71.8%, against 79.2% in all my White games. The Englund cost me points. | White's 2nd move | Games | Wins | Losses | Draws | |---|---|---|---|---| | dxe5 (accepting the pawn) | 32 | 15 | 17 | 0 | | c3 (declining) | 22 | 8 | 12 | 2 | | Other | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | In 2024 I took the pawn almost every time. In 2025, as a [London System](/openings/london-system/) player, I switched to declining with the pawn to c3 and setting up my usual pieces. My score got worse, not better. Stockfish marked 44 of my moves in these games as opening blunders, 77 in the middlegame and 27 in the endgame. Most of the damage came after the opening, but three opening moments explain a lot of it. ## Position 1: take the pawn on move 2 This position came up in 55 of the 56 games. Here, against Little-Finger (1306) in December 2025, with me at 1337, I declined. > **1.d4 e5: Black offers a pawn** > Position (FEN): `rnbqkbnr/pppp1ppp/8/4p3/3P4/8/PPP1PPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 2` > Played: c3 — Pawn from c2 to c3, declining > Better: dxe5 — Pawn takes the pawn on e5 Stockfish rates taking the pawn slightly better for White. After the pawn to c3, it calls the position about equal, with Black's best reply being to push the e-pawn forward to e4 and gain space. In my games the engine marked 2.c3 as a mistake in 20 of the 22 games where I played it, and as an inaccuracy in the other two. This is not a blunder, and I won this particular game. But declining gives back the one thing the gambit offers you for free. If you take, you are a pawn up and the burden is on Black to prove the traps. ## Position 2: the queen check on b4 This is the trick the whole gambit is built around. January 2026, against RybakinaFan (1355), with me at 1328. I had taken the pawn, developed my knight to f3 and my bishop to f4. Black's queen came to b4 with check. > **Black's queen checks and also attacks the bishop on f4** > Position (FEN): `r1b1kbnr/pppp1ppp/2n5/4P3/1q3B2/5N2/PPP1PPPP/RN1QKB1R w KQkq - 5 5` > Played: c3 — Pawn from c2 to c3, blocking the check > Better: Bd2 — Bishop from f4 to d2, blocking and attacking the queen The check is a **double attack**: one move that threatens two things at once. It attacks my king and, along the same diagonal, my bishop on f4. Blocking with the pawn to c3 stops the check but not the second threat. Stockfish's top answer for Black after my move is the queen taking the bishop on f4, and it rates the position as completely winning for Black. With the bishop to d2 instead, the engine rates White clearly better: the bishop blocks the check, attacks the queen and stays defended. This was not a one-off. The queen check on b4 came up in five of my Englund games. I found the bishop to d2 once, in my first meeting with it in February 2024. Then I got it wrong four times in a row: the knight to d2 against Hello545676 (1036) dropped the same bishop, and in [game 850](/journey/opening-lesson-game-850/) the pawn to c3 gave back the material after my bishop had gone to g5. I lost three of those five games. ## Position 3: don't fall for the bishop to c3 Blocking with the bishop to d2 lets Black's queen take the pawn on b2. February 2024, against arieljon (1014), with me at 910. This is the game where I played the right block. > **Black's queen took on b2: chase it with the bishop or the knight?** > Position (FEN): `r1b1kbnr/pppp1ppp/2n5/4P3/8/5N2/PqPBPPPP/RN1QKB1R w KQkq - 0 6` > Played: Bc3 — Bishop from d2 to c3, the natural chase > Better: Nc3 — Knight from b1 to c3 The bishop to c3 looks natural, attacking the queen. It is the trap Wikipedia calls notorious. After the bishop move, Stockfish's top answer is Black's bishop to b4, pinning my bishop to my king (a **pin** is when a piece can't move without exposing a more valuable piece behind it). The engine rates that as winning for Black. If White defends with the queen to d2, Black takes on c3, and recapturing with the queen allows the queen to c1, which is checkmate. The knight to c3 instead develops a piece without leaving anything loose, and the engine rates White clearly better. I played it in this game and won. It is the same rule as position 2: before you chase a queen, check what your move leaves behind. ## How to play against the Englund Gambit as a beginner 1. **Take the pawn.** In these games Stockfish preferred 2.dxe5 to declining. 2. **Learn the one check.** With your bishop on f4, when Black's queen checks on b4, block with the bishop to d2, which also attacks the queen. The pawn or knight block leaves the bishop on f4 hanging. 3. **Develop the knight, not the bishop, to c3.** After Black's queen takes on b2, the bishop to c3 walks into a pin. 4. **Count what each check attacks.** Every queen check in this opening has a second target. Ask "what else does it hit?" before you block. 5. **Expect a fight after the opening.** Most of my Englund blunders came in the middlegame. In [game 1497](/journey/opening-lesson-game-1497/), Black missed a bishop check twice and I still got mated later. If you play the Englund as Black, the same facts apply from the other side. Chess.com calls it unsound, so it works when White doesn't know these moves. In my games, that happened more often than it should have. For a wider view of 1.d4 itself, see the [Queen's Pawn Opening for beginners](/openings/queens-pawn-opening/); the [Zukertort Opening](/openings/zukertort-opening/) page covers the other setup I played with White. ## How Chess Coach helps with the Englund Gambit Chess Coach is a connector for Claude and ChatGPT that reviews finished Chess.com and Lichess games with Stockfish. The `opening_report` tool shows the openings you play or face with each colour and your score in each; that is how my 43% against the Englund stood out. With `review_game` you pick one of those games and get its key moments explained in plain words, with a red arrow for your move and a green arrow for the better one, and practice mode lets you replay the mistake until the right block becomes automatic. It only works on finished games, never games in progress. New accounts get 14 days of full access free, no card needed. Setup takes a few minutes: see [how to connect Chess Coach](/connect/). ## Read the journey games behind this page - [Week 6: the London bishop against the Englund](/journey/week-2024-w07/), including the arieljon game. - [Week 27: from 1090 to 1018](/journey/week-2024-w28/), with the Hello545676 game. - [Week 32: the Englund Gambit and a seven-game skid](/journey/week-2024-w33/). - [Game 850: queen chase mistakes](/journey/opening-lesson-game-850/) and [game 955: the missed en passant capture](/journey/opening-lesson-game-955/). - [Week 68: declining the gambit and a bishop on h6](/journey/week-2025-w18/) and [week 101: the RybakinaFan game](/journey/week-2026-w01/), or the whole series on the [journey page](/journey/). ## FAQ ### What are the moves of the Englund Gambit? 1.d4 e5. Black offers the e5 pawn at once. The main line goes 2.dxe5 Nc6 3.Nf3 Qe7, and Black hopes White walks into a check on b4 that hits a loose piece. ### Is the Englund Gambit good for beginners? Chess.com's opening page calls it not a sound opening and says it is not popular among stronger players, though it has grown among club players. It wins games when White doesn't know the traps, so as White it pays to learn two moves. ### How do you beat the Englund Gambit as White? Take the pawn with 2.dxe5, develop, and answer the queen check on b4 with the bishop to d2. After Black takes on b2, play the knight to c3, not the bishop to c3. ### What is the Englund Gambit trap? In the main line, after 4.Bf4 Qb4+ 5.Bd2 Qxb2, the natural 6.Bc3 loses to 6...Bb4. If White then plays 7.Qd2 Bxc3 8.Qxc3, Black mates with the queen on c1. ### Should White decline the Englund Gambit with 2.c3? It is playable, but in my games Stockfish preferred taking the pawn: it rated 2.dxe5 slightly better for White and the position after 2.c3 about equal. With 2.c3 I scored worse, 8 wins in 22 games. ## Related - [Englund Gambit queen chase mistakes: game 850](https://thechesscoach.netlify.app/journey/opening-lesson-game-850.md) - [Englund Gambit Bg3+ trick: what I missed in game 1497](https://thechesscoach.netlify.app/journey/opening-lesson-game-1497.md) - [London System for beginners: 296 real club games](https://thechesscoach.netlify.app/openings/london-system.md) - [Week 6 (Feb 2024): +53 with Bf4 setups and the Englund Gambit](https://thechesscoach.netlify.app/journey/week-2024-w07.md)